Life in the Spotlight: Erik Dabrowski ’14

ALUMNI PROFILE

LIFE IN THE SPOTLIGHT: ERIK DABROWSKI ’14

Though Erik Dabrowski ’14 is now back home in Western Massachusetts, he doesn’t regret a moment of his years living in Los Angeles. “Living in LA as an actor is a grind,” he said. “It gave me a work ethic I brought back to New England that’s razor sharp.” An actor, performer, writer, and filmmaker who majored in performing arts at MCLA, Dabrowski headed to LA after graduation to earn his master’s degree from California Institute of the Arts. He stayed in the City of Angels after graduation, going to auditions, working on various projects, and honing his craft—but decided to return home to Chicopee in late 2019. He hadn’t seen his close-knit family in two years; ultimately, his choice gave him a familiar place to

land when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the United States earlier this year. “One thing I realized when I came back here and settled was I was still writing and sending remote auditions,” he said. And he was working on other projects—doing commercial and narrative work on the East Coast, and working on a writing project based on his grandparents that he is currently shopping at MGM studios in LA. As a creative working in the competitive atmosphere of LA, “if you have something unique to say, you better say it, and you better know how to say it,” Dabrowski said. “Creating your own work is the most important part, even as an actor, especially in a place that’s so oversaturated.” Dabrowski, who comes from a family of Polish immigrants, is retelling a dramatized version of his grandparents’ already dramatic story of being captured by Stalin’s Red Army and sent to a Siberian gulag at the start of World War II. Each of his grandparents spent time in a Russian labor camp and subsequently escaped. Growing up, “the way they talked about it was the most interesting part—so matter of fact about these atrocities to humanity they lived through and experienced,” Dabrowski said. When he was at CalArts, he returned home to interview his grandmother as she was close to passing away. “She talked about how lucky our generation is, even my parents—how lucky they are to live free and to have opportunities,” he said. “I don’t know a lot of stories (in media) about what happened to the Polish people through the Red Army. It’s not a story that gets told a lot; there are few narrative films.” At CalArts, Dabrowski had the opportunity to study under experienced actors like Fran Bennett, Roy Hart, and Peabody Award-winning LisaGay Hamilton, who acted as a mentor. “She made me understand the craft of acting, which is an unapologetic, controlled chaos,” he said. Comedy has also fueled Dabrowski’s creative work—he spent time doing improv at the Groundlings Theatre and School in LA, which counts Kathy Griffin, Melissa McCarthy, and Craig T. Nelson among its alumni. “That was one of my favorite things, and improv is an important tool. Being classically trained is important, and being able to land every single line with precision is important—but when that is thrown to the wind, it’s an unmatched experience.” But he also has been deeply inspired by classical performance and craft, studying the masters, and the idea of absurdism. He read play after play as a student, including a lot of German playwright Bertolt Brecht. Dabrowski is fond of the playwright’s quote “I am made to laugh about those who cry, and cry about those who laugh”— the absurdism, the revealing of the subconscious, the breaking of taboo, in performance. “Those things entice me. That’s what drives me, even in commercial work,” he said. These concepts have been combined in Dabrowski’s love of “creature work”—playing a monster on screen—which combine “literally every aspect of acting and then some,” he said. As a monster—such as Walter, the Santa-clad, childeating monster he played for a Crypt TV YouTube spot that has racked up nearly 4.5 million views— he combines body work, storytelling, costume, makeup, and more to become something entirely alien, different, inhuman. Dabrowski encourages young actors to prepare before they consider making a full-time move to a city like LA. “Start establishing credits first,” he said. “If that means putting yourself in your own work, or getting into semi-local work, do it. There’s a ton of stuff happening in New England. You don’t have to be in LA to create meaningful art.”

View Dabrowski’s commercial work at www.facebook.com/husariaproductions.